That was the takeaway from Saturday's spring game, a 34-27 victory for the offense in a game marked by gaudy passing numbers, mostly from the three quarterbacks jockeying for the No. 2 position.

If you thought freshman A.J. Long and redshirt freshman Mitch Kimble looked a bit ahead in the race coming into the day, based on the distribution of reps early on, you would not be wrong. But another redshirt freshman, Austin Wilson, has come on strong during the second half of spring ball and did little to strike his name from the list of contenders come fall.

"Obviously Terrel is our leader and we're excited about him," offensive coordinator George McDonald said. "But if something were to happen, I think one of those three guys, they'll be able to help us win a game. We're excited about what we have at quarterback. It's really a good position to have for the future."

There is a fourth who will join the mix in August, and back in Florida, freshman quarterback Alin Edouard watched the scrimmage airing online on ESPN3 and saw "a school that fits my playing style," he said.

On Saturday, everyone under center looked efficient. Syracuse ran only the nuts and bolts of its offense during the 72-play scrimmage, and it seemed like it threw bubble screens for every one of the 4,071 fans in attendance at the Carrier Dome.

Two of the game's biggest plays came on such quick flares to the perimeter, and both came from the arm of Wilson, who saw his first action in the second half. Wilson kicked one out wide to Jeremiah Kobena, who cut it back across the length of the field and scored on a 18-yard touchdown with the aid of a vicious block from Kendall Moore. Wilson also connected with Ashton Broyld, who took a bubble screen 54 yards for a score.

"Being younger, you don't get as many reps as the starter obviously," Wilson said, "so you have to relish every opportunity you get." He finished 6-for-6 for 124 yards and two touchdowns, an encouraging end to a spring that Lester described as "really poor" in the beginning.

Long and Kimble were equally impressive. Both led the only two touchdown drives in the first half. Long's TD came on a short completion to Broyld, and Kimble connected with Kobena on a 15-yard throw. He also threw perhaps the best ball of the day, a strike over the middle to Brisly Estime in stride that led to a 64-yard gain, the longest play from the scrimmage.

"It will be interesting to see once we put the whole playbook on their plate, which one can handle it," said Lester, the team's quarterbacks coach. "They both played well today. It's close. And Austin played well today. Austin had a really poor beginning of spring ball, and the second half he got a lot better. I told him not to worry about his numbers, just worry about the next practice, and he had a good day."

The next chance for the staff to work with the young quarterbacks won't be until training camp in August. All retention and progress will fall on the players during voluntary summer workouts.

Through 15 practice sessions, Lester said Long was "a little bit ahead" of where he expected the 18-year-old January enrollee to be.

"Going into this practice, we went purely by the numbers," Lester said. "A.J.'s numbers were a tad better than Mitch's. Really, really close though, so I let him go first.

"I tell my guys it's all by the numbers. The film doesn't lie. Your numbers don't lie. I'm not going to say, 'I like you better. 'I like you better.'"

This will be settled on the field later this summer, and it's still anybody's job.